LifeMember, Susan is correct in pointing out that your question smuggles in an assumption that laws can protect children. Don't give her that loophole, because she won't be embarrassed to take it. The question you need to ask is: "Is it morally acceptable for a community to use a democratic process of majority (but not universal) assent to legislate a uniform rule embedding an assumption that the ability to give informed sexual consent is a function of age?" [Prediction: Hogarth will claim not to understand the question.] Ruwart and Hogarth will necessarily answer "no", because (as I understand it) they claim it is never morally acceptable for a community to legislate *anything* except by universal consensus. Further, Hogarth believes (as far as I can tell) that the LP and its candidates should never claim that it is morally acceptable for a community to legislate anything -- even protection of life, liberty, and property -- except by universal consensus.
And if Susan says I've misunderstood her, then note carefully whether she actually clarifies what she thinks the LP and its candidates should be allowed to say about the ability of the community to legislate without universal consensus.
Bill, the current Platform cycle has all along been featuring discussions like this -- and even better ones. :-) For the info I've been able to smuggle out of PlatCom's private discussions, see http://libertarianmajority.net/. Also, search at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LPplatform-discuss for phrases like
Kuznets curves
Duverger's Law
abortion evictionism
free rider problem
club goods
Tiebout sorting
free variables in libertarian theory
Euthyphro dilemma
Pigovian taxes
Nash-Cournot equilibrium
Kaldor-Hicks efficiency
moral hazard
Duverger's Law
abortion evictionism
free rider problem
club goods
Tiebout sorting
free variables in libertarian theory
Euthyphro dilemma
Pigovian taxes
Nash-Cournot equilibrium
Kaldor-Hicks efficiency
moral hazard
negative externalities
natural monopoly
Trolley Problem
land value tax
public choice theory
geolibertarian
Pareto optimality
Prisoner's Dilemma
Allais paradox
Coase theorem
asymmetric information
Arrow's theorem
Green tax shift
corporate personhood
natural monopoly
Trolley Problem
land value tax
public choice theory
geolibertarian
Pareto optimality
Prisoner's Dilemma
Allais paradox
Coase theorem
asymmetric information
Arrow's theorem
Green tax shift
corporate personhood
The 2008 Platform Committee has a pretty diverse and intelligent group of people on it, and I think that shows in the quality of the language we've sifted and rescued from a dozen past platforms.
